Commencement Program Redesign

An updated program design for all undergraduate commencement ceremonies at Northern Kentucky University.

In 2025, a refresh of the NKU commencement program was pitched by the Marketing + Communications team. 

In collaboration with the Special Events team the following priorities were identified:

1. Update the design to better reflect the current university brand.

2. Reorganize the content to better flow through the document.

3. Make the copy more legible and reduce the amount of words per page.

4. Reduce page count to save on printing costs.

The 2024 program had a total of 44 pages while the new 2025 program has a total of 32 pages, achieving the goal of cutting the program cost down.

By analyzing the content, several sections were approved to be removed; it was decided that this content did not serve the purpose of the program which is to highlight and honor NKU's graduates. 

Such content includes:

• College specific awards and honor societies which are recognized at other ceremonies/events.

• List of all scholarships awarded to graduating seniors.

• List of all university boards and committees.

• Superfluous photos that were used only to take us white space.

One-to-one comparisons of specific pages can be viewed below. 

The program was reorganized to follow the flow of the ceremony itself. General content such as Tradition and Honors and Commencement Speakers were moved before the Order Of Exercises to encourage attendees to read about the ceremony before it begins.

All university boards and committees except for the highest level were cut and combined with the previous listing of leadership to create Leadership and Governance. This condensed four pages into one.

The honors symbols key was moved to the front of the program and combined with ceremony information to create Traditions and Honors. An evergreen photo was chosen that represents a key part of the ceremony, which replaces the general graduation stock photos.

Information about Academic Attire was separated from information about the ceremony so readers can easily find the tassel colors and associate them with the appropriate college. Breaking up this original page makes the information easier to digest and lets the text have room to breathe.

All of the Commencement Speaker biographies were shortened and the design streamlined so that both can fit on one page. 

The Order of Exercises are the only pages in the program that are flooded with gold. This allows them to be easily picked out by someone flipping through the program.

Four columns have now been changed to three, allowing more room for each student's name; there are very few, if any, names that have to be broken between lines (this was an issue in with the previous design). The typeface is changed from the condensed to the standard version of Avenir, making it easier to read. 

The honors symbol key has been moved from the back of the program to the footer of each right-hand page that lists graduate names.

The Welcome New Alumni letter was changed from a footnote at the end of the program to a more friendly and exciting invitation to stay connected to NKU even after graduation.